Bernie Sanders: "We're Looking At" Running In 2020

In an interview with MSNBC's Al Sharpton, Sen. Bernie Sanders talks about what kind of candidate can defeat Donald Trump in 2020 and whether he is that candidate.

SHARPTON: Now, 2020 everyone is talking about this candidate or that candidate. A central question is, will Bernie Sanders run again?

SANDERS: And the answer is, Al, I will make that decision at the appropriate time. And I will be honest with you, you are a friend. You know, we are looking at it. But it is a very -- it is a very – it is a decision that impacts your family. And I want to make sure that when I make that decision, if I decide to run, that I have concluded, in fact, that I am the strongest candidate who can defeat Donald Trump. We got some great people out there who are thinking of running. They are my friends. And I have got to make that decision that, based on my background, based on my past, based on my ideas that, in fact, I am the candidate that can defeat Trump --

SHARPTON: But you are not ruling it out. You are saying you are seriously considering it?

SANDERS: That is correct.

SHARPTON: Now, what type of candidate do you think the Democratic Party and Independents need to defeat the President if he is the candidate in 2020?

SANDERS: I think you need a candidate who has -- can focus on – in two ways, two approaches. Number one, we have got to deal with the ugliness of Donald Trump, his authoritarianism, his racism and sexism and all of that. That has got to be dealt with. We are talking, Al, about the future of American democracy. I think you and I who have known each other for a few years would never have thought that in 2018, we really would be talking about the need to protect the fundamentals of American democracy from an authoritarian President. .

SHARPTON: Right.

SANDERS: You know, we would have talked about healthcare or the environment or criminal justice. Not about the fundamentals of American democracy and to protect those fundamentals against an authoritarian President. Obviously, you got to deal with that.

But second of all, going back to the work that you have done, Jesse Jackson has done, people have done over the years. We have got to bring our coalition together. That means working people who are black and white and Latino, Asian-American, native-American to demand that we have an economy and a government that works for all.

Unemployment today is reasonably low. That's good. But there are tens of millions of workers today who cannot afford to take care of their families on nine, 10, 11 bucks an hour. Thirty million people have no health insurance. People who can't afford prescription drugs. People all over this country are looking at their kids and see their kids will have a lower standard of living than they did. People are worried about the potential horrors of climate change and what it will mean to this planet.

Our job, Al, is to bring people together, to do exactly the opposite of what Trump does. He is trying to divide us up. We got to bring people together around an agenda that works for all of us and not just the 1 percent.

CNN contributor Kirsten Powers said just because you voted for Donald Trump in 2016 because you didn't like Hillary Clinton "doesn't make you not racist." In fact, the 'USA Today' columnist said, "it actually makes you racist."
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